Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

List of 8 items.

• White Ally

  A white ally accepts  the limits of her/his/their knowledge about other people’s experiences but doesn't use that as a reason not to think or act. A white ally does not remain silent but challenges racism as it comes up daily, but also seeks to deconstruct it institutionally and live in a way that challenges systemic oppression, at the risk of experiencing some of that oppression. Being a white ally entails building relationships with both people of color, and also with white people in order to challenge them in their thinking about race. White allies don’t have it all figured out, but are committed to non-complacency.

• POC

  Person/People of Color is primarily used to describe any person who is not considered White. 

• PWI

  Predominantly White institutions is a term used to describe institutions of higher learning in which Whites account for more than 50% or greater of student enrollment.  

• Affinity group

  A group that provides an opportunity for people to explore, unpack, and engage in conversation on the various interpersonal dynamics, beliefs, and thoughts that shape our racialized experiences as members of a community.

• Microaggression

  Intentional or unintentional verbal, nonverbal or environmental slights/insults that communicate hostile, derogatory or negative messages to people based upon their marginalized group.

• Privilege

  Shared with all people in struggles for liberation and equality. Using or exercising one’s power to work with others equitably, for example, in a social movement.

• Race

  A social construct that artificially divides people into distinct groups based on characteristics such as physical appearance, ancestral heritage, cultural affiliation, cultural history, ethnic classification, and the political needs of a society at a given period of time.

• Transgender 

  • An umbrella term for people who identify as neither female nor male and/or as neither a man nor as a woman. Transgender is not a sexual orientation; transgender people may have any sexual orientation.
  • Transgender people are those whose psychological self ("gender identity" – one’s internal experience of their gender) differs from the physical sex with which they were born (“biological sex” - one’s body -genitals, chromosomes, etc.). Often, society conflates sex and gender, viewing them as the same thing. However, gender and sex are not the same thing.